Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-09-05
BEATTlE'S APPARITION.

The city was creeping up that way:
there Was no manner of doubt about that
Indeed why should one say it was creep
ing up, Ii had Crcpt mp already. To be
sure there were lone blocks here and
there rs yet, defined solely by line of
curbStones. intersected at right angles by
unpaved roads that. after rains. turned
into canals of ouZing mud. and bestSewei
over their Quadrangular eXpanse with
elected tomato cans, old shoes and such
rubbish generally AS habituaRy tenants
those waste suburban spaces given over 10
TO the frolicSome goat-blocks, in short,
which a belated ayfarer in the vicinity Of
the park would lie apt 10 pass through at
q more or less rapid pace after 10 O'Clock
at night
But other blocks again We're, always
with gaps and hiatuses of empty lots be-
tween, what one might call built up. A
semi rural mode OF life obtained with the
inhabitants, some OF whom kept y few
chickens in their yards. Many OF these
houses were divided into flats, and the sep.
,.rate dwellings brought low rents as yet.
1t was a refuge within city limits for busi-
ness men who had failed honorably, not
being quite abreast of the progressive
spirit of the times, and for unambitious
young people beginning life-of these there
We're not many.
Now, a number OF these houses-in
fact whole rows here and there in the vi
cinity-were owned by Timothy Pinck-
ney and it has been said that they
brought comparatively low rents. Never
theless Timothy was well content. He
L boz h.. hx-
and by. And he held on TO his property
and dreamed dreams of the future when
it would make him many times a million
aire.
This prospective millionaire, with now
more money in his Golfers than any one
knew, lived in a two-stOry white frame
house whose rear yard was contingent to
the rear of some of those very houses
owned by him. No one ever saw the in
side of that two story frame dwelling for
the simple reason that Timothy had no
friends, relatives or acquaintance. He
had a daughter, to be sure-a young,
plump and black eyed thing, with long,
demure lashes, who occasionally appeared
at the door when a tinInan came around
to negotiate exchanges of old bottles and
rags. But Timothy evidently intended to
keep his Bertha's charms safely away
from the CovetOus eyes of gallants. The
women OF the neighUorhood-for instance,
the undertaken wife across the lot-were
quite aware that black eyed Bertha never
had a new frock from year s end TO years
end: no. nor Il new bunnit, neither
Well, Timothy was q pitiless and pitt
ful old miser: there WAS no question Of
that. And seeing that he was progress
ing in years he ought TO have commenced
To realize. mark and repent of the evil
of his course. But it is safe To surmise
that his conscience had given him no un
easiness Of any sort this long time past
His digestion was as satisfactory as that
Of an ostrich. and his thoughts We're pleas
antly occupied with airy or arduous com
putations, AS the case might be, day in
and day out When the stomach and the
brain are thus in good condition it is as
tonishing how little place there remains
for conscience in all the human mechan-
ism.
However, one hot night In June Tim
othy came home not feeling quite SO well
as usual The day had been sultry and
he had walked about a great deal in the
busy marts Of commerce down town and
in the sun. He had a headache and it
made him cross. But after Bertha had
gotten him his supper, and he had no ap-
petite for it, these novel phenomena made
him pensiye instead.
He went out in his back yard and sat
down on au overturned barrel and began
to breathe the evening air 1t was heavy,
and compounded of many local and in
digenous odors, not all of them pleasant
On one side there was a gap in the wooden
rails Of the fence. That gap opened out
upon several empty corner lots. rocky in
places, and gave an uninterrupted view Of
the CHASTITY unlertaker's emblem by the
side of that functiCnary's dwelling. di-
agonally across on the next street
Timothy could not see it this evening. 1t
was too dark. But he knew it was there,
and the knowledge somehow was uncom-
Portable.
A more agreeable object of contempla-
ton presented itself in the row OF build
ings before him, the row which represented
portion Of his possessions. But his
mind seemed determined to take q new
course this evening. His thoughts, start
ing from the row of buildings, began to
travel backward over the years gone by,
and the first acquisitions which had
marked them. For the first time in
Lord! how many years:-he thought of
Beattie. Now, there was no denying that
tho first of bis good luck had begun with
his acquaintance with Beattie. Beattie
had given him great deal of good advice.
zee, and he was very sorry that things
tuSned OUT just as they did with regard to
Beattie. Very sorry. But man has got
10 look ont for himself. Timothy now re-
peated that assertion to himself. rising in
rebellion against this suddenly resurrected
pang of guilty conscience; repeated it
with heat. Some people might say that
he had ruined Beattie-Beattie, who had
been his first friend-and left him to die
in the poorhouse; but he, Timothy Pinck-
ney, would always stand up and say that
a man must look out for himself first!
Must look out for himself
In the excitement of these unexpected
retrospective memories, Timothy, who had
been sitting there in the pure night much
longer than he knew, raised up his hand
to bring it down with emphasis on his
knee. 1t remained arrested in midair. A
trembling seized it. The trembling COM
itself TO all his body. \ cold
sweat beaded his brow. His heart left its
normal place and began to thump and
fiutter horribly in his threat. In mo
ment more excess of terror gave him a |
IpNtE succeeding
upon the first interval Of paralysis, and he |
burst headlong into the kitchen, startling
Bertha into dropping pan she held and |
her to eNclaim, Us she beheld his |
visage:
Good land o mercy, father. What il
the matter;''
I've seen ghost" he said
June went and July came, and with II
Gays more sultry and nights more op-
pressively favored with the odors from
the bone factories across the river.
The plump and black eyed Bertha, poor
child, would doubtless have liked to par
ticipate in that social life which dis
trihuted itself over open thresholds and
upon friendly curbstones these breathless
nights. But no such innocent delights
were comprised in Timothy Pinckney's
system of discipline. He believed himself,
in early hours, as being an economy in
light, and six nights out of the seven saw
him alrp1Uy in his room and in his haJ